Frames from the heart

Sujata Sen with Debal Sen at the release of his latest book at The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Picture by Arnab Mondal

One of the city’s best known heart specialists has come up with a collection of images that touch the heart.

“I have been a photographer longer than I have been a doctor. As a youngster, I was developing and printing pictures in my mother’s larder,” said cardiologist Debal Sen while introducing his latest coffee table book, Once Upon a Time, at The Palladian Lounge in The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on March 30.

For the busy doctor who can pursue his hobby only in his spare time, “images are reverberations of the subconscious”.

Sujata Sen, the director of British Council, East India, presided over the event. She said: “His works go into the depth of memory. A doctor, a photographer, a poet, an artist… so many personalities and all of them come through in his books. The most interesting thing about Once Upon a Time is that it evokes a lot of emotions. It is a very good combination of text and photographs.”

Sen’s first book, Wild Bengal, dealt with the wilderness of Bengal and the second, Panch Kedar, with the five Kedar temples.

Once Upon a Time, a collection of black-and-white photographs, is about his growing-up years and his take on his surroundings.

On March 20, the doctor had displayed a selection of his photographs (taken over 40 years) at the ITC Sonar art gallery, where actor Dhritiman Chaterji had launched the book in the presence of Tanusree Shankar, Madhu Neotia and Priti Patel.

Chaterji said: “I think you will find (in the book) a quality of contemplation, nostalgia.... as if he’s trying to hold on to things.”

The photographer in Dr Sen is currently working on his next project: tracing the river Brahmaputra from its source in the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.